Jail For Teenager Who Chucked Sofa Off Top Floor At Westfield

ByMF Jones

You may remember the viral footage earlier this year of a teenager lobbing a 15kg sofa off the top floor of Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford, east London, which narrowly missed shoppers below and could have easily resulted in serious injury or worse.

Here’s the clip in case you missed it:

Well, we now have an update: the 16-year-old boy who was arrested over the incident has been jailed for eight months.

The teen, who cannot be named due to his age, initially told officers who arrested him that the incident was “not that deep”, and admitted he often tossed objects from bridges as pranks. In court, he pleaded guilty to recklessly causing a public nuisance and criminal damage, said he was “really sorry” and asked for a second chance.

The boy’s co-defendant, aged 15, pleaded not guilty to both charges and will face trial on December 2.

Prosecutor Noel Shaw said: “Clearly, the most serious factor is that there was a realistic risk of extremely serious injury, life-changing injury, to somebody completely unconnected with either of the defendants. What the court has seen is the defendant picking up what is described as – although I wouldn’t have used the word – a sofa, certainly a very heavy piece of furniture and throwing it over a balcony.

The chair on the floor of Westfield shopping centre

“What one sees in the footage is effectively a type of stairwell – a tiered gallery situation – one can see that it has landed on a place where people are normally walking in the shopping centre. This all occurred on 1 March this year, he was interviewed on the 4 March – to summarise, he admits throwing, he says he intended to do damage to the sofa stool, he admits being reckless.

“He thought the worst that might happen is that is that someone might require hospital treatment, he was apologetic. He’s stated that he and his co-defendant regularly indulge in pranks, including throwing objects off bridges and trains.

“He intended to throw the sofa stool over, off the balcony, knowing that there was nothing to prevent it from falling into the place below.

“And, knowing that it is a place in which people were walking without any protective clothing or any other sort of protection.”

Mark Tooley, who was representing the 16-year-old, said he had been “showing off.” He said: “Perhaps he may well have sought to make friends in the wrong kind of way – it was called showing off when I was a kid.

“It still applies here doing something criminally stupid and reckless, but happily causing no harm. He is an immature young man yet to come anywhere close to full maturity and understanding: rehabilitation is the key.”

The boy was handed an eight-month detention and training order, half of which will be served in a secure training facility. A bit lenient, some might say, but he is only young and stupid after all. Here’s hoping he learns from this experience and realises what an utterly brainless and dangerous thing it was to do.

For the dude who forced 2 carjackers to fight each other after he caught them trying to steal his car, click HERE.

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